Dressing Up Halloween: The Story of Ben Cooper Inc.

The nostalgia of those classic Ben Cooper costumes of the 70s and 80s seems to be having a real moment this year, and I'm all for it. As a product of that generation, I spent many a Halloween shredding through the one-piece vinyl costumes while I struggled to see or breathe through the hard plastic masks, all while hurriedly canvassing the neighborhood trying to amass as much candy as I possibly could.

First, it was the insanely popular line of 6" Ben Cooper Costume Kids collectible figures by NECA (anybody wanna sell me a set of Wave 1 figures for anything less than the outrageous eBay flipper prices?), and now this. A full documentary on the company that changed Halloween costumes for an entire generation of kids.

Art by Austin Pardun.

HNN Productions and director Rob Caprilozzi team up to tell the story of Ben Cooper Inc. and their rise to the top of the Halloween costume industry. The trailer is full of great, old clips of their iconic costumes alongside stories from the names that were there during that time.

The documentary is available now on Amazon Prime and will probably be the best $3 you'll spend all October. I'm diving into this one immediately! Enjoy!

A Major Award...

So a few months back, I posted on my excitement of the seasonal return of the Monster cereals. To relive my hyper-sweet childhood breakfast memories, I ended up buying a box of Count Chocula (the gold standard of Monster cereals) and Frute Brute (a horrifically sweet, cherry-flavored mess that I won't take a chance on again).

The thing that caught my attention was this year's customized Monsters, designed by famous street artist, KAWS. Nothing mind-blowing, but kinda cool.

But the thing that REALLY caught my attention was the contest on the side of the boxes, where you could win a limited-edition set of 4 KAWS Monster figures. Cool. I jumped on their site and plugged in the code from the box. And then thought nothing more of it. Because I never win ANY kind of contest like this...

Until now.

I ended up receiving a "Congratulations" email back in the middle of October informing me that I had in fact won a set of figures. I got really excited, then quickly went back to work on the upcoming haunt build.

Fast forward to this week, when a package from General Mills showed up in my mailbox...

My KAWS Monster Cereal figures! I actually won a contest, and they actually showed up!

Now having said that, I'm actually not really sure what I'm going to do with them. For now, I'm keeping them in their sealed bags and they will go back in the mailer envelope. I'll keep them in my closet until I figure out exactly what I'm going to do. Still, a really cool prize from a most unexpected win!

And I have seen a few other Halloween bloggers showing off their figures, so it looks like there were quite a few winners out there. So congrats to everyone who won, and if you didn't win (and you REALLY, REALLY want a set) you're still in luck. People are already posting them up on eBay for silly money...

But wait, there's more. In doing a bit of research on the Monster cereals, I found a most interesting fact...

Are you ready?

Did you know that Count Chocula has an actual first name??

It's Alfred. Count Alfred Chocula.

Do you want to know another interesting/kinda gross fact? I'm warning you on this one, though. Click the next link only if you REALLY want to know.

Learn all about "Franken Berry Stool." EWWW...

  

MondoBalls!

Just announced today over at Mondo:

Introducing MondoBalls™ - gross-out toys of the 80s and 90s reimagined through the eyes of Mondo!

Everyone who’s anyone remembers Madballs, the now classic toy balls featuring disgustingly fun characters like Horn Head and Slobulus. Now imagine that same style of toy applied to other licenses…Friday the 13th, Gremlins, Marvel and many more!

The first three MondoBalls characters will be available for pre-order in February. Read the entire release here!

 

Weebles Haunted House - 1976 TV Commercial

"Weebles Wobble, But They Don't Fall Down!" Does anybody else remember Weebles, the old egg-shaped toys from the 70s? Here's an old TV commercial for their Haunted House playset with glow-in-the-dark ghost. Which unfortunately looks more like a common egg...